The present invention relates to compounds and methods for detection and treatment of carcinomas and their precursor lesions. The invention provides DNase nucleic acids and polypeptides useful for the detection and treatment of carcinomas and their precursor lesions. The invention is more specifically related to a method for detection of carcinomas and their precursor lesions comprising the detection of the level and/or the subcellular localization of one or more DNase molecules in biological samples. Furthermore the present invention provides methods for early diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of the disease course of carcinomas and their precursor lesions as well as for the treatment of said lesions.
In most tumours there is a strong correlation between the patients outcome following initial therapy and the stage at which the disease has been diagnosed. So the earlier the cancer could be detected the better are the chances for the patient to survive. Thus sensitive testing methods are required for detecting the tumours in early stages or even in preliminary stages of the cancer such as precancerous stages or the precursors of malignant cancerous stages.
The most promising methods for early diagnosis of tumours are those involving molecular markers characteristic for tumours or characteristic for precursory stages of tumours.
Cancer being a quite heterogeneous disease, multiple regulators of the cell growth can be involved in the genesis of cancer. These regulatory elements of the cell cycle can be either positive regulators, named oncogenes when mutated, so that a transformed state is reached, or negative regulators, named tumour suppressor genes. The number of factors known to be involved in the regulation of the cell cycle and potentially being causative agents in the development of cancer exceeds 100 up to know and is still increasing.
The molecules being involved in the emergence of the cancerous state of a cell can be used to discriminate between cancer cells and normal tissue. Thus cancerous tissue can be detected by detecting molecules characteristic for the cancer cells. This turns out to be sophisticated due to the large number of molecules potentially being involved in causing cancer.
For improved diagnosis of tumours there is a need for new marker molecules for use in diagnosis of carcinomas and their precursor lesions, that enable for specific early detection and give the opportunity to treat the disorders at an early stage.